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I knew it was going to be a hard act to follow after what we experienced last summer. With the water level dropping to around 40,000 acre feet, the lake was very vulnerable last year in August and many of the trophy brown trout anglers did well. There were several accounts of browns from 10-12 LB. Personally,I had two fantastic days, one of which was the best day of quality brown fishing I have ever experienced. Chuck Jones and I caught 15 browns over 20 in. and I was very fortunate to catch 12 over 6 LB. that day topped by a 9 LB. hookjaw. To read about that trip scroll down through the fishing reports to 8/29/2010.

With a bigger winter and snowpack than we have had in several years, it was a different story at Wickiup this summer. The water storage at the end of August was around 120,000 acre feet and the browns were much harder to locate. Allan Cole told me that he was on the water one morning in the past couple of weeks when Chuck Jones stuck a big brown going 12 LB. I forget exactly how many Chuck has caught over 10 LB. in the last 30 years, but it must be close to 35 give or take a few. What an incredible feat!

One of my buddies from California, Dan Stewart, was up during the end of August and we did get together for an evening run and caught (3) browns to 5 LB. working the channel. He missed out last year and was hoping to hit it this year. Though he didn't get anything over 10 LB., I think he said he had a nice brown pushing 8 LB. Dan had been really hot on several big browns from CO the past couple of years catching (2) big hookjaw males weighing 13 and 14 LB. respectively, in a two week stretch!

I did see a photo of monster hookjaw brown from Wickiup the other day, caught over the Labor Day weekend, that weighed 19 LB! That is the biggest brown I have heard about this season. I will try and get a photo and possibly a story if I can track the guy down.

With the irrigation season winding down, I doubt the water level will drop much more this year. I think some more nice browns will be caught but I don't expect it to be anything like it was last year. Time will tell.

I did get a chance to take Colin up last week for an evening and a morning at Wick. I stuck two nice bucks that were almost "identical twins" weighing in the 7 LB. range about 15 minutes apart in the last hour of the evening. The next morning was a different ballgame and we only had one strike for the half day we worked it. We made it back up again last night and landed two smaller browns in the 3-3.5 Lb range working the same area we did last week. I will have a buddy out later this week so look for another report next week.

Fall is just around the corner........where did summer go?!

Sreamin' Drags,
Rick